Israel Blows up Shrine to St. Barbara

Priest says Christian site destroyed A Palestinian priest said troops had blown up a Christian site in the West Bank. The army said it had not known that what it described as a cave used by militants was holy to Christians. “The Israeli army on Friday night detonated explosives at the site of Saint Barbara. I found that this small site was completely destroyed and became a pile of scattered stones,” a Greek Orthodox priest, Father Aziz Halaweh, told Reuters. Last month the army ended a 39-day siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born, after militants who had taken refuge there agreed to go to the Gaza Strip (news – web sites) or to exile in Europe.